


cyan candlelight (to our next checkpoint we go)

by DarkColdSummer



Series: fortune, misfortune, and everything in-between [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 01, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Episode: s01e01 The Rise of Voltron, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Half-Galra Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Season/Series 01, Successful Kerberos Mission, Voltron: Legendary Defender Season/Series 01, Zombie Apocalypse, allura refuses to cooperate and let herself be introduced, but alllura eventually got like 1-2 lines of description/speech, seriously this one was supposed to be exclusively for introducing allura, they're... working on acting as a team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26600053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkColdSummer/pseuds/DarkColdSummer
Summary: There are so many ways they’ve gotten lucky within these twenty-four hours (probably less) or so.There’s finding Keith, escaping the Garrison, finding the Lion-spaceship, having the materials to make the Lion-spaceship-finder, amputating Shiro in time for him not to be affected by the virus (they think), have they mentioned finding the Lion-spaceship yet? Because that definitely should count-What’s one more thing?Also, quick question, asking for a friend: What are the odds that the random planet you land on has a breathable-by-humans atmosphere and also houses a giant, clearly alien castle that seems to be your newly found Lion-spaceship’s home?(aka, zombie apocalypse au part 4: this is where it becomes less zombie-apocalypse-y because they kinda. aren’t on earth anymore. also it is taking an incredibly long amount of time to even get pasts1e1, why is it taking so long-)
Relationships: Hunk & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: fortune, misfortune, and everything in-between [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883455
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	cyan candlelight (to our next checkpoint we go)

**Author's Note:**

> Is it exam period? Yes, my first paper is tomorrow. Should I be writing? No. Am I writing? Yes. Am I stressed? Yes. Am I stress-writing? Absolutely yes.
> 
> Oh, and if you haven’t read the other parts of the series, just do. Plus this one, they’re like 5k+ in total, that’s not very much. Or, if you really don’t want to, here’s what you need to know:
> 
> First fic: Kerberos turned out fine. The Galra have a bioweapon that they accidentally lost. It blew up in Earth’s Sun, releasing waves of radiation. Keith was nearly turned but saved thanks to his Galran DNA. He looks Galra though. Shiro panics and knocks Keith out, then runs away. 
> 
> Second fic: The Garrison is shady - they kidnapped Keith, people (Veronica) are going missing, Shiro is not a zombie/sun-afflicted, etc. (Matt and Sam Holt are reportedly zombies.) The Garrison Trio receive a cryptic last text from Veronica and run away, saving Keith and meeting Shiro who also tried to save Keith. 
> 
> Third fic: While fighting their way to the Blue Lion, Shiro got bitten so Katie (called Katie because she never went undercover as Pidge) amputated him. They got into Blue and flew away. There’s no Galra ship because they don’t have a reason to follow Shiro, but they think aliens might have the technological advantage to solve their apocalypse.
> 
> Extra: Lance loves his stolen sniper rifle. Keith loves his father’s old sword. Hunk is thankful for his experimental laser machine gun thing. No one knows where Katie got her bayonet from. Shiro is sorely uncomfortable with the handgun.
> 
> This starts like… 22 minutes into the first episode, if you want a comparison. And ends around… 27? Yeah.

“Oh my god,” Lance chants under his breath, but loud enough for Keith to hear, which honestly isn’t all too hard considering how Keith is directly behind him, and how small the cockpit of the… spaceship (?) is. Honestly, Keith isn’t sure if it compares to turning into a zombie but maintaining a non-zombie state of mind, being kidnapped by his ex-school and low-key experimented on. Maybe it isn’t the top, but it’s definitely somewhere up there. “Dios mío. Holy fuck.”

“Uh, guys?” Hunk asks. His voice is queasy and there’s something there that Keith can’t quite read, but Lance and Katie must be able to with ease, because they respond quickly.

“I don’t have anything,” Lance says.

“I have this,” Katie responds at the same time, handing Hunk a plastic bag. He takes and opens it quickly, turning away as he pukes. “I’m kinda surprised it took this long, especially considering actual space travel in a foreign spaceship.”

“I’m so sorry,” Hunk explains, to Keith and Shiro, once he’s done. “I get motion sickness really easily.”

“I don’t blame you,” Shiro says, placing a (his only remaining) hand on Hunk’s shoulder in a comforting manner. “Space travel can be a bit… extreme.”

“Extreme is an understatement,” Katie mutters a complaint.

“It’s not that bad…” Keith says, scuffing one of his feet on the really weird floor tiles of the ship. It really isn’t. The take-off was very smooth, compared to the clunky flight simulators back in the Garrison. The wormhole was surprisingly comfortable. Well, Lance’s dismal flying aside, of course. (Of course, that’s all sort of in comparison to- well.)

“Not that bad?” Shiro asks, raising an eyebrow. Keith shrugs. It’s not like Shiro doesn’t already know of his resistance against take-off turbulence. You know, what with the mentorship and also adoption and all that. He really shouldn’t be surprised.

“Yeah, yeah, Keith’s a flight genius, we all knew that,” Lance waves off. “Anyway, the Lion wants to land on this planet. I think… I think it’s going home.”

That statement’s ominous as fuck. Keith wants to protest the thought, but they already jumped through a wormhole, the constellations aren’t familiar so they’re probably thousands of light-years away from Earth, and it’s not like Earth is all that habitable right now, especially with the, you know, zombie apocalypse?

Besides, being out here feels… strangely right.

“Uh hey, anyone having any second thoughts about taking an alien spaceship through a wormhole?” Hunk asks, brows furrowed. Shiro looks away. Katie and Lance give their simulation teammate similar deadpan looks. Keith just stares. None of them answers verbally, but the unspoken answer must get through anyway. “Oh, okay.”

The Lion lands in front of a castle and Lance slides off his seat quickly, the first one to the exit the spaceship in his excitement? Enthusiasm? Anticipation? Keith isn’t quite sure, but Lance seems surprisingly positive about this whole situation. Hunk and Katie are the next to follow behind, the two already enthusiastically discussing the workings of the wormhole and the Lion. Shiro stays with him.

“…Are we not going to talk about the atmosphere of this alien planet?” Shiro asks, directed at no one in particular. “What if there’s no oxygen?”

Keith snorts, and they both watch from the cockpit as the trio leave the safety of the Lion and don’t suffocate to death. “Looks like it’s safe enough,” he says drily. Shiro chuckles, but they still don’t head down.

“…Sorry about your arm,” Keith says, softly.

Shiro hears it anyway. “Hey, don’t worry about it.” He bumps their shoulders. “‘sides, if you do that, I’ll have to apologise for your new colour and for knocking you out with a vase and panicking and leaving you in the Garrison’s grasp.”

Keith scrunches up his nose because, no? Why should Shiro apologise for that? He made his decisions with what limited decisions he had, and it’s in no way his fault that Keith’s purple- Oh.

“Oh,” he repeats in understanding, verbally instead of mentally this time. “I see.”

Shiro grins at him, and ruffles his hair like he used to. “Come on, I think they’re getting impatient.”

Shiro is absolutely right, because, by the time they figure out where to exit the Lion from, the trio are already impatiently waiting. Lance is tapping his feet rapidly, Hunk is busy fiddling with some spare parts and Katie is just sitting on the alien grass, observing it.

“This place feels an awful lot like Earth,” she says, and Keith agrees because this planet is hauntingly like Earth. The alien grass is the same shade of green as Earth’s, the oceans are the same deep blue. The sky is similarly light blue and the cliffs are rocky dark grey

“What took you so long?” Lance asks. Demands, more like.

“Just wanted to make sure the atmosphere was safe,” Shiro answers easily.

“You were lucky,” Keith says, because it’s true. “You could’ve died if it weren’t.”

Lance has the nerve to wave him off, like his and his friend’s possible deaths aren’t important. “The Lion - I’m going to call her Marisol, is that alri- yeah, Marisol told me that the atmosphere was breathable- able to be breathed in? Something like that.”

Keith is unimpressed, and frankly, it seems like Shiro isn’t either.

“And… the Lion told you that?” Katie asks sceptically. “In those words?”

“Well, it’s not like Mari’s saying words,” Lance rolls his eyes, gesturing to his head. “More feeding ideas into my brain, you know? I told you that just now, didn’t I?” Everyone stares at him like he’s grown a second head. “No? …I could’ve sworn I did.”

Behind them, the Lion gets to its feet, and everyone’s hands instantly go to their weaponry as they all snap around. Except for Lance, Keith observes. Which is an interesting observation in itself.

“Oh fudge cakes, it’s going to eat us! I knew it!” Hunk all but screeches as he hoists his gun.

The Lion roars, and behind them, again (what’s with all the multiple directions? It’s tiring and infuriating, honestly), the door to the castle opens.

“Oh,” Hunk says, as they all peer into the dark corridor. He looks back at the Lion. “Guess I was wrong about you.”

The entrance hallway is large, and tall. But honestly, compared to the Lion? It’s not that tall. It’s frankly impressive, even if the colour scheme of white and cyan isn’t really Keith’s taste. It’s also pretty big, but then again, it’s a castle, so…

“I thought the steps would be bigger,” Katie mutters, bending down to observe said steps. “Especially considering the size of the Lion.”

“Marisol,” Lance mutters, which Keith only hears because the other teen is sticking unusually close to him. He ignores him in favour of further examining the walls.

“I wonder if these patterns have any meanings,” he tells the group in general. “These patterns aren’t an Earth thing.”

He gets semi-confused looks in general, before something above them lights up and covers them in a cyan light.

“What’s going on,” Shiro demands, at the same time as the alien voice in an alien language that they can’t understand.

“Question,” Hunk raises. “How do we communicate with aliens? Can the aliens understand us but we not understand them?”

“That was probably their AI or automated response or something like that,” Katie comments (it’s not an answer, Keith can’t help but observe) as the light above them fades, the motion that largely resembled scanning having stopped. The scanning light is replaced by a series of torch-like lights lighting up their path for them automatically. There’s only one lighted path. “I guess we’re going that way!”

-

The path is… long. Very long. And the thing is, they don’t even know where it’s leading. Even worse, if they had to get out, they definitely wouldn’t know how to, because the lights behind them go out the moment they’re not within a certain range. They climb up and down several flights of steps - Keith wouldn’t be surprised if they climbed several hundred steps per person and he’d gladly attribute it to terrible layout and bad design on the part of the builders of this castle.

Also, for all they know, it could be some sort of trap, and so Keith tells his ex-apocalypse teammates that much.

They can’t do anything but follow the lights though, and stars bless if Keith would ever be happy about the uncertainty.

-

“Where are we?” Lance asks, eventually.

The final room that they eventually make their way to is a wide circular room with several pillars. Keith can’t tell if they’re grey or white or metal.

“It’s some kind of control room,” Katie replies, staring the stand in the middle of the room. Control panel? Keith wouldn’t know. “This is so cool,” she says, running her hands over the stand gleefully. “I wonder how it works.”

As she does that, two cylinders start to rise above the ground. Keith braces his sword, even as he asks, “Katie, what did you do?”

Shiro awkwardly braces his remaining arm as Katie protests the accusation, pointing her bayonet. “I didn’t do anything! Nothing I knew I did, anyway!”

The cylinders stay there for a few seconds, and wow, they’re cold. Really cold. Are these people/aliens/creatures frozen in them?

Hunk must have a similar train of thought. “Are these guys… dead?”

As if to prove him wrong, one of the cylinders opens up, revealing a… An elf. With white hair. And some facial markings that look like hearts. Keith and Lance both dart forward to brace her, even as she lets out a recognisable cry of “Father!”

Keith certainly hopes that he’ll get explanations as soon as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Keith and Shiro really don’t like talking. Really really. They just. Refused to talk. At no point in time were they forthcoming with their words. Except when they were apologising. _Why_ did they insist on apologising. 
> 
> (Disclaimer: this series isn’t really meant to be a detailed rewrite of canon. It’s just. Scenes that change due to Circumstances that are harder to be summarised in 2 lines but then early episodes have a lot of scenes. Yes, I capitalised Circumstances. (I’ve just realised that Shiro’s lack of capture means a lack of the whole Project Kuron debacle whoops. Here I was hoping that I could just skip to S7. Actually, a lot changes. Huh. Time to change series summary!))
> 
> ALSO. ALLURA. REFUSED. TO SHOW UP. Like literally, at every turn of this instalment- Keith was the POV of this one because it was going to tackle how he looks Galra right now in this universe. BUT. ALLURA. Yeah. She refused to let herself be introduced early. 
> 
> Some of the text (mainly speeches) may be familiar. This is because this is based off VLD's first episode. It's quite frankly not going to be too different for some part. I think.


End file.
